{"id":420853,"date":"2026-01-21T13:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/420853\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T13:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:30:07","slug":"head-held-high-raducanu-refuses-to-be-critical-after-early-australian-open-exit-emma-raducanu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/420853\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Head held high\u2019: Raducanu refuses to be critical after early Australian Open exit | Emma Raducanu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Raducanu refused to be too critical of herself after crashing out in the second round of the Australian Open<\/a> because of her injury-ravaged preparation for the tournament.<\/p>\n

The British 28th seed had been hoping to set up another meeting with the world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka but she faded from a promising position and fell to a 7-6 (3), 6-2 defeat against Anastasia Potapova.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to give myself too much of a hard time because I know my preparation going into this tournament,\u201d she said. \u201cI have to leave with my head held high because of the matches I\u2019ve had here. I didn\u2019t even know at the beginning if I would be coming to Australia, so it\u2019s a positive in that sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raducanu started well against the world No 55, establishing a 5-3 lead, but was never comfortable in windy conditions. \u201cIt was one of those you\u2019re 5-3 up, but you\u2019re not feeling particularly good, and you\u2019re trying to tough out every point however you can,\u201d said the 23-year-old. \u201cIt\u2019s not the way that I want to really be playing. It got me in the lead. I just didn\u2019t feel like I could scrap the whole match.\u201d<\/p>\n

In what has become a recurring theme, Raducanu\u2019s preparations for a grand slam tournament were hurt by physical problems<\/a>. She struggled with a foot injury throughout the off-season and only began working through intensive drills days before her first match of the season.<\/p>\n

Raducanu failed to find her top level throughout her three weeks in Australia, particularly the quality of her serve and forehand, which she believes is a consequence of her less than ideal buildup.<\/p>\n

Emma Raducanu says he needs to \u2018stick to my guns\u2019 and focus on the offensive baseline game that propelled her early rise. Photograph: Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you would have told me I would have played, you know, four or five matches in Australia regardless of how they went, I think from a physical perspective, it would have been pretty surprising,\u201d said Raducanu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with each one I did get better, except today, but having to learn through matches is something that\u2019s really difficult and not something that I really want to be doing. But because it\u2019s a grand slam, you feel like you don\u2019t want to miss out. So I don\u2019t regret the decision, because I got to come and play a slam here.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if I wasn\u2019t very ready, I think I had a good three weeks down under on and off the court. I just need to take it for what it is, be pragmatic, and go back and keep working. The season is still quite long, so hopefully if I stay healthy, do the right things, then it will start falling into place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raducanu is next scheduled to compete in Cluj, Romania, a WTA 250 event that begins on 1 February, but she says her primary goal now is to re-evaluate her game and rediscover her identity on the court having veered too far from the offensive baseline game that drove her early success.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I just want to hit the ball to the corners and hard,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m doing all this variety, and it\u2019s not doing what I want it to do. I need to just work on playing in a way more similar to how I was playing when I was younger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always just changed direction, took the ball early, and went for it. I think I do have the ability to do many things on the court, but I feel like as I\u2019m learning all those skills, it\u2019s like I need to stick to my guns a bit as well and work on that. For me, it\u2019s pretty simple.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu refused to be too critical of herself after crashing out in the second round of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-420853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}